A strong, shallow earthquake shook the central Philippines on Thursday, leaving at least two people dead and injuring more than 100 people, including several in a collapsed building where others were trapped. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a magnitude of 6.5 in Leyte province. Filipino seismologists measured the depth at only 2 kilometers and said the quake, caused by movement of the Philippine Fault, was felt strongest in Leyte's Kananga town. Shallow earthquakes generally cause more damage on the Earth's surface. Thousands of residents, office workers and students fled from homes, buildings and schools, with some falling over as the ground shook. The quake struck in a region that was devastated in November 2013 by Typhoon Haiyan, which whipped up huge waves that left more than 7,300 people dead or missing, leveled entire villages and displaced more than 5 million villagers. Tacloban city, also hard hit by Haiyan, lost electrical power after Thursday's earthquake.

Police in Georgia say they have arrested a woman in connection with the murder of her husband and four of her children, all stabbed to death in a home outside Atlanta. Police said the dead children were under the age of 10. A fifth child was also wounded and was taken to an Atlanta hospital with serious injuries. The five bodies were found inside a home in the Loganville area outside Atlanta early Thursday. Police said it wasn't known whether the dead man was the children's biological father, and could offer no motive for the killings. But police said they believe the family all lived together in that home.

Chinese state media say a bus has flipped over while traveling on a highway in the southern province of Guangdong, killing at least 19 people. State broadcaster CCTV said the bus appeared to be the only vehicle involved in the accident Thursday. Other reports said 44 people were aboard the bus and several were sent to a nearby hospital. The highway was closed while crews cleared the wreckage. Photos on websites from the scene showed the highway slick with rain and the overturned bus lying on a crushed guardrail.

Having lost patience with China, the Trump administration is studying new steps to starve North Korea of cash for its nuclear program. The options include one that would infuriate Beijing: sanctions on Chinese companies that help keep the North's economy afloat. It's an approach that's paid off for the U.S. in the past, including with Iran. So-called secondary sanctions upped the economic pressure on Tehran and helped drive it to the nuclear negotiating table. There are significant risks, too, however. They include opening a new rift with Beijing that could complicate other U.S. diplomatic efforts. Washington already has sanctions on North Korean companies and people accused of illicit dealings with the North. Secondary sanctions would target banks and companies that do legitimate business with North Korea.

President Donald Trump started his second trip abroad as president with a stop in Poland, where he met with Polish President Andrzej Duda. In a joint news conference Thursday, Trump warned North Korea he was considering "some pretty severe things" in response to its testing of a missile that could reach Alaska with a nuclear warhead. He also repeated a call for NATO allies to spend more on defense. Trump was also scheduled to deliver a speech from Krasinski Square, where Polish media says the government has promised Trump cheering crowds. Next Trump will head to Hamburg for a more challenging G-20 summit. On Thursday night, Trump will meet privately with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has called his decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement "extremely regrettable."

President Trump will raise the possibility of cooperation between the U.S. and Russia in Syria when he meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Hamburg on the sidelines of the G-20 summit. That's according to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Joint operations aiming to ease the Syria conflict could include no-fly zones, ceasefire monitoring, and coordination of humanitarian aid deliveries. Tillerson's statement, issued as he prepared to leave to join Trump in Germany on Thursday, appeared to be an effort to set an agenda for Trump's scheduled Friday meeting with Putin, their first face-to-face talks since Trump took office in January. Tillerson noted that the U.S. and Russia have already shown they can work together in Syria by establishing deconfliction areas to avoid contact between their warplanes.

Rep. Steve Scalise, who was shot in the hip on June 14, was moved bac into intensive care on Wednesday. MedStar Washington hospital said that doctors are concerned Scalise could face a new infection risk after several surgeries. Scalise, the House majority whip, was wounded when a gunman opened fire at a field in Alexandria, Virginia, as Republicans practiced for the Congressional Baseball Game. Scalise and four others were taken to hospitals. The gunman, 66-year-old gunman James Hodgkinson, was killed by police. Scalise, who spent nine days in intensive care, is listed as being in serious condition.

Hong Kong customs officials say they have seized more than $9 million worth of ivory this week in the city's biggest haul in 30 years. The Customs and Excise Department said Thursday authorities pulled out 7,200 kilograms (15,900 pounds) of elephant tusks from a shipment from Malaysia labeled as frozen fish. Customs officers displayed samples of the tusks piled on the floor at their offices close to some of Hong Kong's giant container ports. The department says the seizure occurred Tuesday and three people at a trading company in Hong Kong have been arrested in connection with the shipment.

Qatar Airways has joined two other major long-haul carriers in the Gulf in getting off a U.S. laptop ban list. The airline said early Thursday that with "immediate effect, all personal electronic devices can be carried on board all departures from Hamad International Airport to destinations in the United States." Hamad International Airport in Doha is the hub of Qatar Airways. The airline did not discuss specifics about what it did to appease U.S. officials. In Turkey, authorities say they now use CT scanners to examine passengers' electronics. The airline joins Abu Dhabi-based Etihad, Dubai-based Emirates and Istanbul-based Turkish Airlines in getting off the list. The Trump administration in March banned cabin electronics on departing flights from 10 Mideast airports over concerns extremists could hide bombs inside of laptop computers.

A Moscow court has imposed a two-year prison sentence on the leader of a hacker group that some reports have suggested was connected with the arrest of two top officials of Russia's national security service. Vladimir Anikeyev was sentenced Thursday on a conviction of hacking the accounts of several prominent Russians, including the spokeswoman for Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. The trial was conducted behind closed doors. Details of the proceedings were unclear. Anikeyev headed a hacker group called Shaltai-Boltai (Humpty-Dumpty). He was arrested last November, but the arrest became known only after Russian news media reported that two officials of the Federal Security Service's cybercrime unit had been arrested on treason charges. Some news reports suggested the officials had connections to the hacker group or had tried to control it.

Hobby Lobby has agreed to give up more than 5,500 ancient Iraqi artifacts in a settlement with the Justice Department that was announced Wednesday. The arts-and-crafts retailer bought the items, which included cuneiform tablets and other objects, for $1.6 million from dealers in Israel and the United Arab Emirates in 2010. The Justice Department said Hobby Lobby ignored an expert's warning that the artifacts could have been smuggled after being taken illegally from archaeological sites, and ignored other "red flags," including conflicting accounts on where the items were stored before they were inspected in the U.A.E. Hobby Lobby, which will pay a $3 million fine, pledged to change how it acquires "cultural property." "We should have exercised more oversight and carefully questioned how the acquisitions were handled," Hobby Lobby's president, Steve Green, said.

A newly discovered but blurry photograph in the National Archives appears to show Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, in Japanese captivity, suggesting the pair survived after they went missing in 1937 during an attempt to fly around the world, and may have died after being captured by Japan. The photo shows a woman resembling Earhart sitting on a dock in the Marshall Islands, and a man who analysts say appears to be the famed aviator's navigator standing nearby. The discovery is featured in a new History Channel special, "Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence," that airs Sunday. Experts who have examined the photo say it could be a convincing new lead in an international mystery that has puzzled searchers for decades. Earhart and Noonan were long thought to have crashed into the sea or perhaps landed on the remote island of Nikumaroro only to later perish. Japan says it has no evidence Earhart was ever in its custody, but many military documents were destroyed during World War II.

Scientists have found an extra charming new subatomic particle that they hope will help further explain a key force that binds matter together. Physicists at the Large Hadron Collider in Europe announced Thursday the fleeting discovery of a long theorized but never-before-seen type of baryon. Baryons are subatomic particles made of up quarks. The most common baryons include protons and neutrons. Quarks are even smaller particles that come in six types, two common types that are light and four heavier types. Oxford physicist Guy Wilkinson, who is part of the experiment, says it's the first time scientists have seen a baryon with two heavy quarks, both the type called "charm." In the natural world, baryons have at most one heavy quark.

The United Nations Security Council has scheduled a Wednesday meeting to discuss North Korea's latest missile test. The U.S. called for an urgent closed-door session of the 15-member council after U.S. officials said they believed that North Korea had, as it claimed, successfully launched an intercontinental ballistic missile, which experts said might be able to reach Alaska with a nuclear warhead. China and Russia, both of which share land borders with North Korea, called for Pyongyang's leader, Kim Jong Un, to freeze his nuclear program. The U.S. and South Korea responded with a joint missile drill that Seoul said was "intended as a strong warning against North Korean provocation" and "showcased precision targeting of the enemy's leadership in case of an emergency." The North Korean leader vowed that he will never put his nation's weapons programs up for negotiation, suggesting the North will conduct more weapons tests until it perfects nuclear-armed missiles capable of striking anywhere in the United States.

Police clashed with protesters in Hamburg, Germany, on Tuesday night in what was expected to be a preview of mass demonstrations during the G-20 summit on July 7 and 8. Dozens of groups have registered to protest during the event, which will be attended by President Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and other leaders. Anti-globalization activists have registered a Thursday protest under the slogan "Welcome to Hell." "We are calling on the world to make Hamburg a focal point of the resistance against the old and new capitalist authorities," said organizers tied to the Rote Flora squat, a center for radical leftists near the G-20 meeting venue where police often confront protesters.

President Trump is stopping in Poland before attending the G-20 summit in Germany, and is likely to receive a friendly welcome in Poland. That's despite lingering skepticism in Europe over his commitment to NATO, his past praise of Russian President Putin and his recent decision to pull the U.S. out of a major international climate agreement. Trump arrives in Warsaw, Poland, on Wednesday for a brief visit that will include a speech in Krasinski Square, near the center of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising against the Nazis. The president is also meeting with the leaders of Poland and Croatia and holding a joint news conference with the leader of Poland.

Ukraine's Cyber Police seized servers at M.E.Doc, an accounting software firm, as part of the investigation into a cyber-attack that hobbled computers at companies around the world. Investigators believe that a vulnerability in the company's accounting software, which 80 percent of Ukrainians use to file their taxes, helped spread the malware virus in the massive hacking operation, an allegation the company has denied. Investigators said early Wednesday that police seized the servers to "immediately stop" what they described as "new activity" suggesting the hackers might be launching another attack.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Tuesday praised his country's soldiers for "the big victory in Mosul," although Iraqi forces are still fighting Islamic State militants in Mosul's Old City and facing increasingly fierce resistance. Al-Abadi's congratulatory remarks came less than a week after he declared ISIS's self-proclaimed caliphate had come to an end after government troops took over the remains of the iconic al-Nuri Mosque in the Old City. Civilians, many cut off from food and water for months, are fleeing the Old City and humanitarian groups have reported a surge in the number of malnourished and dehydrated people seeking shelter.

Russian strategic bombers fired advanced cruise missiles at Islamic State targets in Syria on Wednesday from a distance of 1,000 kilometers in a show of force Moscow said demolished three ammunition depots and a command post. The Russian Defence Ministry said the attack was carried out by Tupolev-95MS strategic bombers which had taken off from a base on Russian soil and refueled mid-air before firing at targets on the border between the Hama and Homs provinces. The ministry added such missiles were capable of hitting targets at a distance of up to 4,500 kilometers and could carry nuclear warheads. The Tupolev-95MS can carry eight such missiles at any one time. The ministry did not say how many aircraft took part in the attack, but said all of the bombers had returned to their home base in Russia safely.

The European Commission on Tuesday announced that it would provide $40 million in extra funding to help Italy handle thousands of migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean from northern Africa. Rome had requested that other European nations do more to share the burden. EU leaders also called on private groups to review their rescue-boat operations off the coast of Libya to make sure that their presence did not serve as a "pull factor" encouraging people to make the risky voyage, giving them hope that if they set out in unseaworthy boats they would be picked up and ferried to Italy.

Police say a New York City officer who was shot while sitting in her patrol car has died in what they're calling a "clear assassination." Police Sgt. Brendan Ryan says 48-year-old Officer Miosotis Familia died at a hospital early Wednesday. Police say other officers shot and killed the suspect after he drew a revolver on them. They say a person believed to be a bystander was struck by a bullet and is in stable condition. The attack happened in the Bronx just after midnight while the officer was sitting in her vehicle with her partner. Her partner radioed for help. Other officers spotted the 34 year old suspect and began chasing him. Police said they know of no connection between the killer and the dead officer.

The British government is sending in outside experts to help oversee recovery efforts from the Grenfell Tower fire, after strong criticism of the local council's response. Communities Secretary Sajid Javid says an independent task force will help local officials deal with the "longer-term recovery." Kensington and Chelsea Council has faced strong criticism for its slow response to June 14 blaze, which killed at least 80 people and left scores homeless. Residents have complained about confusion and delays in getting assistance and finding new accommodation. Police say the devastation is so catastrophic that it will be months before the full death toll is known. The Metropolitan Police said Wednesday that 87 "recoveries" of human remains have been made - but that they may not be from 87 different people.

Israel and India have signed a series of agreements to cooperate in the fields of technology, water and agriculture. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday the cooperation marks a "match made in heaven" as he stood alongside the visiting prime minister of India, Narendra Modi. The agreements are the centerpiece of Modi's three-day visit to celebrate 25 years of diplomatic relations and strengthen his country's already close ties with the Jewish state. During the Cold War, India didn't have open relations with Israel, leaning heavily in favor of the Palestinians. But over the past quarter century, the countries have developed close ties in high-tech and defense. Modi will hold talks with Netanyahu, tech companies and the local community of Indian Jews. His schedule doesn't include any meetings with Palestinian officials.

The British Airline Pilots Association is warning of a looming catastrophe unless drones are subject to tougher regulations. The association demanded the compulsory registration of drones Monday after Gatwick Airport briefly closed its runway over safety concerns when a drone was spotted in the area. Authorities diverted five flights as a result. The union's flight safety specialist, Steve Landells, says the incident shows "the threat of drones being flown near manned aircraft must be addressed before we see a disaster." There have been several near-misses between drones and aircraft in Britain, with sheer chance averting collision in some cases. Under British rules, a drone operator must be able to see it at all times and keep them away from planes, helicopters, airports and airfields.

Volvo said Wednesday that it would phase out cars that only have traditional combustion engines in a major new push into electric motors. "This announcement marks the end of the solely combustion engine-powered car," Volvo's president, Håkan Samuelsson, said in a statement. The Chinese-owned Swedish automaker said that by 2019 every new model it produces will have an electric motor, in what it called a step toward the "historic end" of the technology that has been used to propel cars and trucks for more than a century. Other automakers also have launched pushes into new technology, but Volvo is the first traditional car manufacturer to fully commit to an all electric and hybrid lineup.

Russia and China joined diplomatic forces on Tuesday and called on North Korea, South Korea and the United States to sign up to a Chinese de-escalation plan designed to defuse tensions around Pyongyang's missile program. The plan would see North Korea suspend its ballistic missile program and the United States and South Korea simultaneously call a moratorium on large-scale missile exercises, both moves aimed at paving the way for multilateral talks. The initiative was set out in a joint statement from the Russian and Chinese foreign ministries issued shortly after President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping held wide-ranging talks in the Kremlin. The statement read, "The situation in the region affects the national interests of both countries. Russia and China will work in close coordination to advance a solution to the complex problem of the Korean Peninsula in every possible way." The Chinese president is meeting with Russia's president for talks on boosting ties between the two allies. Before arriving in Moscow Monday, Xi warned President Donald Trump that "some negative factors" are hurting U.S.-China relations, as tensions soared over a U.S. destroyer sailing within the territorial seas limit of a Chinese-claimed island in the South China Sea. Trump, Putin and Xi will attend the Group of 20 summit in Germany later this week. Putin and Trump are to hold their first meeting there.

The launch of that missile by North Korea was said to be its first successful test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile- or ICBM. North Korean state media said the rocket flew for 39 minutes, traveling 580 miles and reaching an altitude of 2,802 kilometers, or 1,741 miles. North Korea said the missile could reach "anywhere in the world." Experts said its trajectory could carry a warhead as far as Alaska, although they disagreed on whether it could accomplish North Korea's goal of developing a missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland. That would require a missile with a range of 4,800 miles, as well as the ability to miniaturize a warhead to fit on it and to prevent the missile from being destroyed on reentry into the atmosphere. President Trump criticized North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un after the launch, tweeting, "Does this guy have anything better to do with his life?" Trump also said on Twitter that it's "Hard to believe that South Korea ... and Japan will put up with this much longer."

The Pentagon has thrown a cloak of secrecy over assessments of the safety and security of its nuclear weapons operations. That's a part of the military with a history of periodic inspection failures and bouts of low morale. Overall results of routine inspections at nuclear weapons bases, such as a "pass-fail" grade, had previously been publicly available. They are now off-limits. The change goes beyond the standard practice of withholding detailed information on the inspections. The stated reason for the change is to prevent adversaries from learning too much about U.S. nuclear weapons vulnerabilities.

President Trump's first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin this week will be brimming with global intrigue. But the White House says there's "no specific agenda." So what are two of the world's most famously unpredictable leaders to discuss? Trump prefers to have neatly packaged achievements to pair with high-profile meetings. He may be looking for concessions from Russia to show he's delivering progress and helping restore a productive relationship. Putin would almost surely want something in return. There's a long list of "irritants" the two countries have been discussing. White House National Security Council and State Department officials have been reviewing possible gestures the U.S. could offer Moscow. That's according to a current and a former administration official, who weren't authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity.

Germany should brace for further attacks given growing numbers of potential Islamist militants, top security officials warned on Tuesday, vowing to step up efforts to prosecute, convict and deport suspects. Germany was hit by five Islamist attacks in 2016, including a December attack on a Berlin Christmas market that killed 12 people, while an additional seven attacks failed or were thwarted. Hans-Georg Maassen, president of Germany's domestic intelligence agency, told reporters, "Islamist terrorism is the biggest challenge facing the BfV and we see it as one of the biggest threats facing the internal security of Germany." The agency's annual report for 2016 said there were 24,400 Islamists in Germany, including around 9,700 Salafists, and the number of Salafists had increased to 10,100 this year. The total also includes some 10,000 members of the Turkish Islamist Milliu Gorus movement. The total number of suspected Islamists marks a drop from the year earlier, but the report said that did not mean the threat had diminished.

The family of a Libyan man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing is launching a fresh effort to posthumously clear his name. Relatives of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi say he was wrongly convicted of the airliner bombing, which killed 270 people. The family's lawyer handed a dossier of evidence to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission in Glasgow on Tuesday. The commission will decide whether to hand the case to an appeals court. Al-Megrahi was convicted in 2001 of blowing up a Pan Am 747 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on Dec. 21, 1988, killing all 259 people aboard and 11 on the ground. Al-Megrahi lost one appeal and abandoned another before being freed in 2009 on compassionate grounds. He died of cancer in 2012, still protesting his innocence.

Florida is set to resume executions after a hiatus of more than 18 months after the U.S. Supreme court found Florida's death sentencing procedure was flawed because it allowed judges to reach a different conclusion from juries. Gov. Rick Scott rescheduled the execution of Mark Asay for Aug. 24. Asay was originally scheduled to be executed on March 17, 2016, for the 1987 murders of Robert Lee Booker and Robert McDowell in Jacksonville. The execution was put on hold after the U.S. Supreme Court found the state's death penalty law unconstitutional. The Legislature has since twice changed the law, most recently this year when it required a unanimous jury recommendation for the death penalty. Asay would be the 24th person executed since Scott took office in 2011.

Legislation to begin the process of transferring European Union law into British law will be presented to parliament next week. A spokesperson for Prime Minister Theresa May said Brexit minister David Davis had given colleagues an update on the "Repeal Bill", which will shift EU legislation into British law as part of the Brexit process. Tens of thousands of EU-related laws have made their way onto the British statute book during membership in the bloc and unpicking that complex legislative web is likely to take many years. The repeal bill, which the government says will help achieve a smooth transition as Britain leaves the EU, will transpose EU law and repeal the 1972 European Communities Act which formalizes Britain's EU membership. It will also give parliament the power to change existing laws to make sure they work after Brexit.

A federal appeals court has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to move ahead with a rule that aims to reduce planet-warming emissions from oil and gas operations. The split decision of a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit finds that EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt over-stepped his authority. Pruitt had sought to delay implementation of an Obama-era rule requiring oil and gas companies to monitor and reduce methane leaks. The appeals court disagrees with Pruitt's contention that industry groups had not had sufficient opportunity to comment before the rule was enacted. The judges also say Pruitt lacks the legal authority to delay the rule from taking effect. The EPA could seek to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.

Volkswagen says its flagship brand is returning to Iran after a 17-year absence. The German carmaker said in a statement Tuesday it will start selling Tiguan SUVs and Passat sedans through an importer. Volkswagen began selling vehicles - including the classic Beetle - in Iran in the 1950s but withdrew in 2000. Volkswagen said in a statement that restarting exports offers the company a chance to get to know local market conditions and re-establish the "Volkswagen" brand. It cited Iranian government estimates of a car market with 3 million new vehicle sales per year.

President Donald Trump pressed Chinese President Xi Jinping to do more to help confront the "growing threat" of North Korea's nuclear weapons program. The high-stakes phone call came after a tense week in which Beijing expressed anger over the Trump administration's arms sale to Taiwan, which China considers one of its provinces. Trump also spoke about North Korea with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan. Trump and Abe expressed "unity with respect to increasing pressure on the regime to change its dangerous path," the Trump administration said. Analysts have been warning that North Korea could be gearing up for another nuclear test, which would escalate tensions already stoked by a series of missile tests. For months, Trump has said that China, North Korea's key ally and trading partner, is best positioned to pressure North Korea to curb its controversial weapons programs.

Meanwhile China accused the U.S. of a "serious political and military provocation" after the USS Stethem, a guided-missile destroyer, sailed within 12 nautical miles of a disputed island in the South China Sea. It was the second such maneuver by a U.S. warship since President Trump took office in January. U.S. officials said the ship's action, known as a freedom-of-navigation operation, was planned in advance and was not intended as a political statement, although the island is in an area where China has been aggressively asserting its control despite territorial claims by other nations. China said the U.S. had "trespassed" in an attempt to stir up trouble.

German authorities said that 18 people died in a fiery bus crash Monday moring. At least 30 other people were injured when the bus rear-ended a trailer-truck at the end of a traffic jam on the A9 highway near Muenchberg in Bavaria, and burst into flames. The bus was carrying a group of German senior citizens. Two of the injured are in life-threatening condition. Police said the members of the tour group were between 41 and 81 years old and mostly from Saxony in eastern Germany. There were two drivers and 46 passengers on the bus.

Islamic State fighters were battling to hold on to the last few streets under their control in the Old City of Mosul on Monday, in what looked like a hopeless last stand in their former stronghold. In fierce fighting, Iraqi army units forced the insurgents back, cornering them in a shrinking rectangle no more than 300 meters wide and 500 meters long by the Tigris river. Smoke covered parts of the Old City, rocked by air strikes and artillery salvos through the morning. The number of Islamic State militants fighting in Mosul has dwindled from thousands at the start of the government offensive more than eight months ago to a mere couple of hundred now, according to the Iraqi military. Reaching the Tigris would give Iraqi forces full control over the city and is expected by the end of this week. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is expected to visit Mosul to formally declare victory, and a week of nationwide celebrations is planned.

A suicide bomber disguised in a woman's head-to-toe robe attacked a refugee camp in Iraq's Anbar province on Sunday, killing at least 14 people and wounding 20 more, according to a provincial official. The blast occurred as workers in the camp were accommodating families that had fled the town of Qaim, which is held by the Islamic State. A police colonel was killed after he became suspicious of the robed person and walked over to embrace him, presumably to absorb the blast and limit casualties. Iraqi forces have driven ISIS fighters out of Anbar. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party suffered an historic defeat in an election in the Japanese capital, signaling trouble ahead for the premier, who has suffered from slumping support because of a favoritism scandal. On the surface, the Tokyo Metropolitan assembly election was a referendum on Governor Yuriko Koike's year in office, but the dismal showing for Abe's party is also a stinging rebuke of his 4-1/2-year-old administration. Koike's Tokyo Citizens First party and its allies took 79 seats in the 127-seat assembly. The LDP won a mere 23, its worst-ever results, compared with 57 before the election. Past Tokyo elections have been bellwethers for national trends. A 2009 Tokyo poll in which the LDP won just 38 seats was followed by its defeat in a general election that year, although this time no lower house poll need be held until late 2018.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain gave Qatar two more days to accept a list of 13 demands to resolve a diplomatic dispute after a Sunday deadline expired. Saudi Arabia and its allies have accused their Persian Gulf neighbor of funding extremists, and have imposed unprecedented diplomatic and economic sanctions for weeks. They have told Qatar to meet their demands, which include shutting down the Al Jazeera news network, or face more sanctions. Qatar denies supporting terrorism and said its Arab neighbors' demands were "bullying" and an "affront to international law."

The United States has lifted a ban on laptops in cabins on flights from Abu Dhabi to the United States, saying Etihad Airways had put in place required tighter security measures. Etihad welcomed the decision on Sunday and credited a facility at Abu Dhabi International Airport where passengers clear U.S. immigration before they land in the United States for "superior security advantages" that had allowed it to satisfy U.S. Requirements. Transportation Security Administration officials have checked that the measures had been implemented correctly, according to the Department of Homeland Security. In March the United States banned laptops in cabins on flights to the United States originating at 10 airports in eight countries - Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Turkey - to address fears that bombs could be concealed in electronic devices taken aboard aircraft. Britain quickly followed suit with a similar set of restrictions.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto will meet with his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump this week at the G20 summit in Germany, according to the Mexican foreign ministry. The election of Trump and his early days in office sent U.S.-Mexico relations to a new low due to his threats to slap tariffs on Mexican-made goods and a plan to build a wall on the southern U.S. border to keep out illegal immigrants. The foreign ministry said the two leaders would review progress in various aspects of the bilateral relationship, and that more details would be published in due course. In late January, a planned meeting between the presidents was canceled following a Twitter dispute over Trump's pledge to make Mexico pay for the wall. The American president has since shied away from that demand. Trump's administration also moved toward talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), toning down earlier threats to pull out of the pact with Mexico and Canada.

President Trump has no plans to visit Britain in the near future, according to a senior U.S. government official on Monday, but added that Trump could always suddenly change his mind. A spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May also said the government was unaware of any plans for Trump to visit Britain in the next few weeks. British media had reported that government sources were warned Trump might visit his golf resort in Scotland with short notice in the next two weeks. Trump is due to visit to Europe for the G20 summit this week and is scheduled to take part in Bastille Day celebrations in France. May extended an invitation to Trump during a trip to Washington in January, but no date for an official visit to the U.K. has ever been announced.

Leaders from the United States, Russia and across Europe paid tribute over the weekend to former German chancellor Helmut Kohl as the architect of German reunification and a driving force for European integration. Kohl, who died on June 16 at 87, was lauded at a ceremony at the European Parliament as a dedicated European who abhorred war. Among the dignitaries at the service - former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Russia Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. A funeral service was held at Speyer Cathedral, where as a teenager Kohl found shelter from allied bombs in World War II. His casket was flown by helicopter from Strasbourg to his hometown Ludwigshafen before being carried by boat up the Rhine to Speyer, one of Germany's oldest towns where Kohl played host to world leaders of the day including Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Mikail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin and Margaret Thatcher.

Tesla's new Model 3 sedan, the electric car maker's first mass-market car, has passed all regulatory requirements for production, according to a tweet from CEO Elon Musk. The Model 3 got past the regulatory hurdle two weeks ahead of schedule. Musk said production was on track to start in July as planned, with the first car expected to roll off the assembly line on Friday. Musk said, "Model 3 Production grows exponentially, so Aug should be 100 cars and Sept above 1,500. Looks like we can reach 20,000 Model 3 cars per month in Dec." The Model 3 is priced at about $35,000, and buyers could cut their costs with a $7,500 federal electric car tax credit.

The United States imposed sanctions on two Chinese citizens and a shipping company in retaliation for helping North Korea's nuclear and missile programs, and accused a Chinese bank of laundering money for Pyongyang. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said the actions were designed to cut off funds that North Korea uses to build its weapons programs, in defiance of U.N. Security Council and unilateral sanctions. A Treasury statement identified the bank as the Bank of Dandong and the firm as Dalian Global Unity Shipping Co. It identified the two individuals as Sun Wei and Li Hong Ri. The sanctions imposed on the two Chinese citizens and the shipping company blacklists them from doing business with U.S.-tied companies and people. Mnuchin said U.S. officials were continuing to look at other companies that may be helping North Korea, and may roll out additional sanctions.

Beijing has strongly protested a U.S. plan to sell $1.4 billion worth of arms to Taiwan and demanded that the deal be canceled. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang on Friday said Washington should immediately stop the sale to avoid harming relations with Beijing. He said the deal would severely damage China's sovereignty and security interests and runs contrary to Washington's commitment to a "one-China" policy. The U.S. State Department approved the arms sales on Thursday, the first such deal with Taiwan since President Donald Trump took office. Taiwan has welcomed the agreement, which is expected to enhance the island's self-defense capability. China considers the self-governing island to be its own territory and has long opposed any arms sales to Taiwan by foreign entities.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says the report by an international chemical weapons watchdog that confirmed a chemical attack in Syria doesn't back claims by the U.S. and its allies that the substance was dropped from aircraft. President Bashar Assad and his ally Russia have denied the government's role in the April 4 attack, in which more than 90 people died. Speaking at a conference in Moscow, Lavrov said: "The report released by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) yesterday said they were not sure that the sarin found there had been airdropped in bombs. They don't know how the sarin ended up there, yet tensions have been escalating for all these months." The U.S. State Department has reacted to the OPCW report saying its findings "reflect a despicable and highly dangerous record of chemical weapons use by the Assad regime." British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is urging the international community to work together to bring to justice those responsible for the nerve gas attack saying, "This confirmation cannot be ignored."

A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is declining to comment on the president's suggestion that the Senate vote now to repeal the Obama health care law, and vote later to replace it. But that idea was rejected months ago by GOP leaders in the House and Senate. They considered it politically unwise, since it could draw accusations that Republicans are simply tossing people off coverage without helping them get medical care. President Trump's suggestion came in an early-morning tweet Friday, which said, "If Republican Senators are unable to pass what they are working on now, they should immediately REPEAL, and then REPLACE at a later date!" The idea isn't without supporters in the Senate. They include Republicans Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Kentucky's Rand Paul.

Top Senate Republicans may try preserving a tax boost on high earners enacted by President Barack Obama. It's part of their bid to woo party moderates and rescue their sputtering push to fix Obama's health care overhaul. The break from dogma by a party that has long reviled tax boosts underscores Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's effort to yank one of the GOP's foremost priorities from the brink of defeat.

The House of Representatives on Thursday passed two bills that would support President Trump's crackdown on undocumented immigrants. One of the measures, the "No Sanctuary for Criminals Act," seeks to punish so-called sanctuary cities that refuse to help federal authorities deport undocumented immigrants. The other, dubbed "Kate's Law," aims to penalize people who commit crimes after entering the country illegally. The legislation was named for Kathryn Steinle, who was fatally shot in San Francisco two years ago by a repeated felon and undocumented immigrant who had been deported several times. The GOP majority passed the bills largely along party lines. Many Democrats criticized the bills as anti-immigrant. Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York called the second bill "callous and irrational."

As authorities enforce a trimmed-down version of President Trump's travel ban, advocates for immigrants are preparing for new court challenges. People from the six affected countries will now have to prove a close family relationship with someone in the United States, or an existing relationship with an entity like a school or business. Critics say the ban is arbitrary and restrictive. A Customs and Border Protection spokesman says the agency expects "business as usual" at entry points. Iran's foreign minister has denounced the travel ban as a "truly shameful exhibition of blind hostility to all Iranians" - and a measure that will prevent Iranian grandmothers from seeing their grandchildren in America. However, the Trump administration altered its definition of a "bona fide" relationship, adding fiancés of people in the U.S. to its list of people who are exempt from its travel ban.

President Trump said Friday that his meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in was bringing the two allies closer together on trade and a strategy to deal with the dangerous regime in North Korea. He said negotiations were underway to revise a trade deal with Korea, which is a major U.S. trading partner. The president said, "Hopefully, it will be an equitable deal. It will be a fair deal for both parties." The United States recorded a $27.6 billion trade deficit with South Korea last year. The deficit began to increase from $13.2 billion in 2011 after a free trade agreement between the two countries took effect in 2012. The two leaders also have been talking extensively about North Korea, where Trump and Moon were not expected to see eye-to-eye.

Three former executives with the operator of the destroyed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have pleaded not guilty to charges of professional negligence, in the only criminal action targeting officials since the triple meltdown more than six years ago. In the first hearing of the trial at Tokyo district court on Friday, Tsunehisa Katsumata, who was chairman of Tokyo Electric Power - Tepco - at the time of the disaster, and two other former executives, argued that they could not have foreseen a tsunami of the size that knocked out the plant's backup cooling system, triggering a meltdown in three reactors. Prosecutors alleged that the 77 year old Katsumata, along with his co-defendants, 67 year old Sakae Muto, and 71 year old Ichiro Takekuro - both former Tepco vice-presidents - had been shown data that anticipated a tsunami of more than 10 meters in height could cause a power outage and other serious consequences at the facility.

Mazda is recalling nearly 228,000 cars in the U.S. because the parking brake may not fully release or could fail to hold the cars, increasing the risk of a crash. The recall covers certain Mazda 6 cars from the 2014 and 2015 model years and the Mazda 3 from 2014 through 2016. The company says water can get into the brake caliper, causing a shaft to corrode and bind. If that happens, the parking brake can get stuck in the on position or fail to fully engage. That can let the cars roll unexpectedly if parked on a slope. Dealers will check the rear brakes. If shafts are corroded, they'll replace the calipers. If not, they'll replace a boot that keeps water out. Owners will be notified starting Aug. 21.

Iran broke the record for Asia's highest temperature ever recorded during June on Wednesday. It was a scorching 128.7 degrees in the southwestern city of Ahvaz, which works out to 53.7 degrees Celsius. The previous June record in Iran was 127.4 degrees. And if that wasn't enough, the heat index, which factors in humidity, hit a whopping 142 degrees. Amazingly, if you only measured by heat index, or humidex, the Iranian city of Bandar Mahshahr actually felt hotter than Ahvaz Wednesday, at a whopping 165 degrees, while maintaining a lower actual temperature of 115 degrees. According to the World Meteorological Organization, the official highest recorded temperature on Earth was 56.7°C - 134°F - which was measured more than a century ago; July 10, 1913 at Greenland Ranch which is located in Death Valley, California.